David Jones
My main research interest regards the spatio-kinematic modelling of planetary nebulae with known binary centres.Planetary nebulae (or PNe) are the remnants of dying intermediate mass stars. They display a spectacular range of colours and shapes, and are some of the most startlingly beautiful objects in the night sky. Those shown below are just a selection (note, some aren't PNe but other forms of astrophysical nebulosity):
Possibly the biggest missing piece in the PN puzzle is how they form such strikingly aspherical shapes. One of the prime suspects in this CSI (CircumStellar Investigation) is binarity. It is believed that if the star that formed the nebula had a close-binary partner, then this could result in the production of a bipolar nebula. If this theory is correct, then all PNe with binary centres would display some degree of bipolarity, and most importantly the symmetry axis of this bipolar structure would lie perpendicular to the plane in which the binary orbits.
My work involves using high-resolution, spatially resolved spectroscopy and deep, narrowband imagery to construct a 3-Dimensional spatio-kinematic model of PNe with binary centres, in order to ascertain whether there is any bipolarity in their structure, and if present what relation does the bipolarity bare to the plane of the binary stars.
More information on the binary hypothesis and related investigations can be found on the webpages of the PLAN-B (Planetary Nebula Binaries) working group.
